Course content
Developing and implementing information systems (IS) in and across organizational contexts is a rather multifaceted challenge that does not only involve their design, but also the development of supportive social frameworks, institutional structures as well as normative conventions that complement and reinforce their adoption and diffusion at large. Therefore, investigating the technological nature of IS without examining their prevalent social aspects yields an incomplete and somewhat shortsighted understanding of the underlying issues at stake.
Thus far, the prevailing discourse in IS has had a techno-centric orientation in spite of the far-reaching social ramifications of these systems. The aim of this course is to move beyond this focus and to include additional ways of describing and analyzing the interrelationship between technology and people in organizations. The course will enable the students to unfold how organizational life is constructed and managed by technology and how social relations influence the technology's ability to contribute to a company's success. We do so by exploring social, organizational, and technological aspects of information systems by building on various perspectives, such as technological determinism, actor-networks, social construction of technology, institutional structures, sensemaking processes, and other approaches used in organization studies. In particular, the course builds on perspectives that explain, apply, build on, and/or compare social aspects of information systems.
The unifying themes that we wish to discuss in the course are: what assumptions about the design, implementation, and use of information systems are embedded in the perspectives? What are the strengths and weaknesses of these perspectives in terms of understanding the interplay between technology and organization, including individual and collective practices with respect to the design and use of technology? How can the different perspectives be applied to real cases of technology use in organizations and what are the practical implications? How do social relations influence the technology's ability to contribute to a company's success?
The course's development of personal competences:
This course will provide students with deep knowledge and develop their analytical skills in analyzing how information systems impact social relations and organizational structures in organizations. Students will gain an understanding of the context, including ethical dilemmas, that guide how social relations influence the design, implementation and adoption of IS. In this respect, the course will enhance the students' understanding of the complexity of information systems that can guide leadership actions in practice.
See course description in course catalogue